Thursday, December 31, 2009

La Place des Charrons

Not far from some large modern buildings, we stumbled across the Place des Charrons, one of the human-scale places in Metz. At the place's south entrance stands a famous renaissance house, the Hotel de Burtaigne. Built at the start of the 16th Century, the Hotel de Burtaigne (a corruption of Bretagne, the name of an 18th-Century owner), served in 1552 as the headquarters of the Duc de Guise in his successful defense of siege of Metz. The square, enlarged to its present dimensions in the middle of the 18th Century, feels particularly neighborhoody. To my eyes, it's so picturesque that it could have served as the set for "An American in Paris." I half expected to see Jerry Mulligan skipping across the square carrying a loaf of bread.

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